What is a Medication Review?
It is a confidential consultation carried out by your GP, or a pharmacist or advanced nurse practitioner from your GP surgery, who has full access to your full medical notes. The objective is to reach an agreement with you about your medicines, optimise the impact of the medicines you’re taking, reduce the number of problems you might be having with them, and reduce waste.
What do we do in a Medication Review?
- To check if the appropriate medication has been prescribed for your needs.
- To check if the medication has been effective.
- To check if the medication was a cost-effective choice.
- To check if all the required monitoring like blood pressure, blood tests etc, are all up-to-date.
- To check if there had been any significant drug interactions, especially if you are taking any medication over the counter or complementary treatment.
- To check if you are experiencing any unacceptable side effects.
- To check your compliance with the medication.
- To check if lifestyle and non-medicinal interventions have been utilised / considered.
- To check whether there had been any unmet needs.
Who needs Medication Reviews?
A medication review is recommended for anyone who gets a repeat NHS prescription for any long term health condition, particularly those with multiple conditions and those with complex medicine regimes.
Your GP may also request that you have a regular medication review at regular intervals, usually done annually. You can also make an appointment at any time to discuss any concerns you have, or you can discuss them with your pharmacist.
How often should a Medication Review take place?
Medication review will take place once a year unless GP feels it is warranted more frequently for clinical reasons.
How can I book a Medication Review?
You can book medication review by booking appointment with GP or Practice Clinical Pharmacist. Your GP / Clinical pharmacist will let you know whether it can be carried out over the telephone or it needs face to face appointment.
Preparing for your Medication Review:
Your review may be over the telephone, however it can also be booked in person.
- Mark the date and time of the appointment and who you are going to talk to in your diary or calendar.
- Make a list of all medication that you take. This includes:
- Any medicines that are prescribed for you (by GP, or hospital or elsewhere).
- Any medicines that you buy over the counter from the chemist or other stores e.g. painkillers, vitamins etc.
- Any medicines that you no longer take.
- You may want to make a list of questions about your medicines. Examples include:
- Why is it important to take this medicine(s)?
- When and how to take the medicine(s)?
- How do I know the medicine is working?
- What should I do if I have problems with the medicine?
- Are there any medicines or food that I should avoid taking whilst on these medicine(s)?
- What will happen if I miss a dose of the medicine or stop taking it?
- If you have been asked to get blood test done prior to medication review ,please collect blood test form from surgery and get the blood test done at least a week before medication review is due so that results are available during medication review.
What will happen if your Medication Review is not done?
We will send you an invitation to book your appointment for the medication review, when it is due. We will send you a reminder every month for the next 3 months to arrange a medication review. If you do not respond to these requests, for safety reasons, the practice will have to restrict the quantity of medication on further prescriptions for another month. If you still do not book your medication review, the practice will not issue further supplies until you have had the medication review with the clinician at the practice, as it would be deemed clinically unsafe.
We encourage all patients to take responsibility for their own health, therefore, we ask that you be aware when your review is due and respond as soon as possible.
If a script is rejected please contact the surgery to book either a face to face or telephone appointment with GP or Clinical Pharmacist in the practice as soon as possible. Unfortunately due to the high volumes of script requests processed every day the reception staff are not able to contact patients personally to inform them of script rejections.
Medications are ONLY withheld or stopped when PATIENT SAFETY is at risk.
Please be assured that your health is important to us and we would not block, stop or withhold any prescriptions without a valid reason. Please feel free to contact us to discuss any concerns you may have regarding your medication.
Thank you for helping us provide the best support to you.